324  Epsom  Salt  versus  Strawberries.  {Am)X%^rm- 
ment.  There  will  be  a  certain  amount  of  diuretic  action,  doubtless, 
in  addition  to  the  laxative,  and  perhaps  some  manifestation  of  the  cool- 
ing or  anti-inflammatory  influence  which  has  led,  at  one  time  and 
another,  to  the  employment  of  Epsom  salt  in  the  treatment  of  fevers 
and  inflammations.  But  these  results  are  evidently  of  no  great  conse- 
quence to  a  healthy  person.  The  only  unpleasant  doubt  that  suggests 
itself  is  in  connection  with  the  diuretic  movement,  namely,  whether 
there  may  not  be  some  danger  in  continually  bringing  into  the  bladder 
an  unnaturally  large  quantity  of  magnesia,  lest  it  should  there  enter 
into  insoluble  combination  with  the  phosphates  of  the  urine.  But  it 
is  none  the  less  true  that  the  ability  to  prevent  occasional  constipation 
by  means  of  salts  so  simple  and  so  nearly  harmless  as  the  mixture  here 
described  will  be  of  much  advantage  in  many  cases. 
The  salts  here  in  question  can  be  obtained  almost  everywhere,  and 
may  readily  be  carried  about  in  traveling,  in  the  form  of  dry  powders, 
to  be  dissolved  in  water  at  the  moment  of  use  or  whenever  they  may 
be  needed. 
Note  by  the  Editor. — Prof.  Storer's  paper  has  recalled  to  our 
mind  several  cases  which  appear  to  sustain  his  views.  In  a  case  of 
external  piles,  well  advanced  in  the  forming  stage,  magnesium  sulphate 
was  selected,  not  so  much  on  account  of  its  laxative  action,  as  rather 
for  its  well  known  property  of  absorbing  and  retaining  water  in  the 
intestinal  canal.  A  solution  was  made  containing  in  each  fluidounce 
half  an  ounce  of  the  salt,  and  this  was  regularly  taken  before  break- 
fast. The  commencing  dose,  half  a  fluidounce,  containing  120  grains 
of  the  salt,  had  to  be  reduced  in  a  few  days  to  one-half,  and  was  dur- 
ing the  following  two  or  three  months  very  gradually  lessened  to  f3ss, 
and  finally  discontinued,  having  effected  a  cure,  or  rather  prevented  a 
further  enlargement  of  the  distention.  We  are  informed  that  during 
the  twenty  years  which  have  since  passed  by  there  has  been  no  neces- 
sity for  repeating  the  treatment. 
Another  case  of  very  recent  occurrence  is  one  of  chronic  constipa- 
tion in  an  aged  person,  requiring  the  frequent  use  of  active  cathartics, 
and  in  which  milder  laxatives,  like  confection  of  senna,  were  of  no 
avail.  A  similar  solution  of  magnesium  sulphate  was  made  and  taken 
in  doses  commencing  with  half  a  fluidounce.  The  dose  was  perhaps 
too  rapidly  reduced  to  a  fluidrachm  j  for  the  latter  dose  soon  failed  to 
accomplish  its  object,  and  had  to  be  increased  again  to  a  tablespoonful. 
